Beth,

Just checking your post again.  You say you are using the 'Articles' module, but I'm using dnn v040600 and don't see it listed.  What version of dnn are you using and where did you get the 'Articles' module?

Beth,

Check in with Efficon and asked for some info on their newsfeed generator.  Meantime, I looked at their site and was able to subscribe to a page that has articles on it, and hopefully it may be using the same method to generate a newsfeed as your module.  As I inspected it, turns out it's not all that mystical.  Here's some 'raw' code from that feed (with apologies to Efficon)

    <rss version="2.0">

The above indicates that you should be able to parse this feed with an xsl file that uses RSS v2.0, but looking at the feed, I really don't see much in the way of RSS v2.0 being used.  So, the only thing you may have to do is disable output escaping on the <description> element.  One thing though, I am not sure if the feed I'm looking at is from the Articles module or not. 

Now, if you could 'syndicate' your Articles feed, I may be able to subscribe to it to troubleshoot further.  The issue here is not really due to a Core DNN module but a 3rd party module's syndication method.  Like many other developers there is a nice thought about upgrading the newsfeed generated, but leaves out the xsl to properly use it.  Now, this isn't really a slam of Efficon, as the modules from them are pretty nice.  It's probably something that went without saying that you would need a custom xsl to use it.  At least that's what I initially see.  Of course, I don't actually use that module, so until I see an example of the raw newsfeed generated by it, I'm really just guessing.

I've contacted Efficon offering to provide a custom xsl for them, and hope I get a positive response.  I don't do this for a living, though I'd like it.  I really contribute in the ways I can due to my history of using DNN and as a former Core Team memeber, with hopefully many friends out in the DNN global community, I think the help is appreciated.

Anyway, if you could syndicate that content on your site, I may be able to help you more.

Cheers

Beth,

Wanted to update you.  I've been in touch with David from Efficion Consulting, and we'r looking into the issue.  Basically, what I've found is that the description element is actually including encoded characters rather than straight HTML, and that's why the typical tactic of disable-output-escaping won't work to allow the feed to display properly.  There are several schools of thought on the use of HTML within a newsfeed, some feel that any formatting with HTML is allowable because it's not really against any of the RSS specs.  Others, believe that HTML should not be used within rss tags, preferring to use in-line CSS in an xsl to format the feed. 

In any case, if a feed includes the encoded html characters, what happens is that they get treated as just text, and that really complicates the transformation of a feed element.  You would have to really work to customize a solution to convert these encoded characters to their HTML intended tag, and that's really not an easy thing to do.  One thing for sure, that's really not something I would do, since my goal in using an RSS feed is to simplify and not to complicate.

As the issue is really something that is due to a 3rd party feed generator, there is nothing wrong with the DNN module.  I'm sure that Efficion will work to an acceptable solution.  This situation really points out the need for folks to work closely with the developers of any 3rd party DNN module.  Most I've ever contacted are more than willing to get into the core of any issue and give you a workaround or solution.  Once I knew what Articles module you were using, I just contacted them to alert them of the issue, and you can see David posted a thread on this forum. 

I know it offers no immediate help, but be a bit more patient, as I'm sure there will be a solution soon.

Cheers